I'm on a Dell Latitude E6420 with Windows 7 and Intel IDT audio. There's no Stereo Mix in the Windows mixer, so I bought i-Sound to record streaming audio.

I haven't been able to get it to record at anything like a normal volume. Depending on settings, I either get nothing on playback, or a very quiet recording (like 2% of the volume it was playing at while recording). The VU-meter bars stay empty while recording.

I haven't got the knowledge or time to play with this any more so am asking for some help.

Between i-Sound, Windows and the media app there's a few settings that can be changed that maybe affect recording volume but I don't know how to work them:

Start playing something in BBC iPlayer - is normal volume. Record a few seconds in i-Sound - VU-meter doesn't move. Play the MP3 in Windows Media Player - is imperceptibly quiet. Increase [14] from 2 to 50 - is 75% of original volume in left channel, 1% in right channel.

As list above but increase [13] from 2 to 10. Start playing in iPlayer - is quite loud, uncomfortable. Record in i-Sound - 1 bar on the VU-meter flickers. Play MP3 in WMP - is very quiet but perceptible; is left channel only. Increase [14] from 2 to 50 - is 75% of original volume in left channel, 1% in right channel.

As list above but decrease [11] from 50 to 10. Increase [13] from 2 to 10. Start playing in iPlayer - is normal volume. Record in i-Sound - VU-meter doesn't move. MP3 is inaudible. Increase [11] from 10 to 50. Increase [14] from 2 to 50 - is 75% of original volume in left channel, 1% in right channel.

As list above but set [5] to Speakers/Headphones. Start playing in iPlayer - is normal volume. Record in i-Sound - VU-meter doesn't move. MP3 is imperceptibly quiet. Increase [14] from 2 to 50 - is normal volume in both channels.

So Recording Source should be Speakers / Headphones rather than Rec. Playback? And you have to play something fantastically loud for i-Sound to record it at a normal level? It would blow my headphones/earbuds. There must be a way to set recording level I'm missing, otherwise it just doesn't work on my PC.

Correct recording source is a Speakers. This input really doesn't have volume controls because it gets audio as-is. If you wish to increase recording level then you need to increase playback level via Windows Volume.

I tried, but the volume would have to be so high to get a normal recording level it would be completely impractical. If the Volume Level slider were enabled when Recording Source = Speakers/Headphones, and it could go 5 times higher, then it would work fine.

Exactly what in the chain isn't working I don't know, but i-Sound isn't able to record on this PC, so I'm sorry but I'll have to ask for my money back. I'll send an email.

1) No. The left/right volume imbalance only happened when Recording Source = Rec. Playback. You said the correct source is Speaker/Headphones, and the volume is balanced in that case. The specific problem is that the recording volume is so low that it's not possible to increase playback volume enough to compensate, by a long way.

2) The exe is timestamped 8 Oct 2012 and I downloaded it from this site.

If there's a solution (some way to force the recording level to a much higher value while retaining audio quality?) then that might fix it. If you're able to suggest anything I'll gladly try it.

Thanks for your help with this. I've got it to work finally by plugging in some earphones with their own physical volume slider and setting to the lowest. Even then it's still too loud to listen to, but at least i-Sound records at a good level now.